Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8067 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-06-04
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Clint Eastwood's stardom was supernova, thanks to Dirty Harry; John Sturges, the man behind The Magnificent Seven and a dozen other memorably leathery Westerns, was directing; and Elmore Leonard was the screenwriter. It just goes to show. Joe Kidd is a muddle and a drag, the shoddiest Eastwood vehicle since Rowdy Yates trod in his last cow flop. Kidd, first seen as a duded-up drunk sleeping one off in jail, is supposed to be a horse rancher and an expert tracker--just the fellow a rapacious land-grabber (Robert Duvall committing lazy villainy) needs to chase down the uppity Latino (John Saxon) who's trying to reclaim the grabbed land for its rightful owners. Neither the characters nor the overland pursuit makes any sense, thanks to chasms in the continuity and no direction to speak of. An absurdly arbitrary assault-by-locomotive provides the climax; as Eastwood observed, "Jesus, anything at this point--let's end it." --Richard T. Jameson

Synopsis
Clint Eastwood stars as the title character in this low-key, moderately politicised variation of his spaghetti westerns. In New Mexico in the late 1890s, the fiery Louis Chama (John Saxon) leads a group of Mexican-American peasants in a fight for their land after the evidence of their ownership has been destroyed in a questionable courthouse fire. The wealthy Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall), who also lays claim to the disputed land, has decided to bypass the legal system and hires a group of killers to take care of Chama. Kidd, who initially rejects Harlan's offer to join his hunting party, changes his mind when he finds that Chama has stolen some of his horses and brutalized one of his ranch hands. However, after seeing Harlan randomly pick off some Mexicans and becoming interested in Helen Sanchez (Stella Garcia), Kidd begins to think twice about his current employer.

Customer Reviews

Very simple Western
This is a pretty good though very simple Western and I am sure that the somewhat low ratings are due, in part, to the movie not being exactly what Clint Eastwood fans expected. In this film, he plays Joe Kidd--a decent sort of guy but not exactly as super-human as "the man with no name" in his Spaghetti Westerns. He's a lot like Eastwood in UNFORGIVEN because he seems not so super-human, except that he is a fundamentally decent person in JOE KIDD, whereas in UNFORGIVEN he's almost like a multiple personality (one nice and the other evil). The character Joe Kidd shows off his abilities here and there, but he isn't the amazing man with a 6-shooter as you'd expect from Eastwood either--though he sure does pretty well with a rifle or train

A good entertaining western
This has some great scenes, some fine action and a great turn from Robert Duvall as a total scumbag. Well worth watching but not a classic.

3 stars for the scenery.
This is not Sturges worst film. That title goes to the magnficent seven of course.

Here we have the INYO National Forest buttermilk and sherwin summit looking fantastic.

Cheaper than an expensive holiday there.

The only reason to keep this dvd is the scenery of the eastern sierras.

Thank goodness it was only 84 minutes long.

Eastwood is quite pathetic in this film but better than he is in some others.